posted
For higher quality you might look into www.dicksons.com they are not the 4 color shiny card type printers.
I have done nice cards for temporary use on my inkjet and color laser printer with cover stock from paper company's like French Paper (www.mrfrench.com) or on full page sticky back paper and apply it to card stock that is too thick to print. It can be tiome consuming though.
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1538 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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www.gotprint.com has my vote as well I got 5000 glossy full color double sided cards for something like 129.00 plus shipping. Can't beat it. Good luck
-------------------- Debbie Scott Scott's Signs & More 467 Saint Johns Rd. Littlestown, Pa. 17340 scottssigns@yahoo.com Posts: 14 | From: Pa. | Registered: Jan 2004
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Because it gets all of your votes, I went to gotprint.com and was rather annoyed.
In order to obtain a price you have to enter a valid US zip code. Ok, I don't have one, so I go to "International".
Very interesting list of countries...including Liechtenstein, which is smaller than Monaco with only a few thousand people, but Canada is not on their list. How did they come up with those choices? Close their eyes and pick?
-------------------- Jerry VanHorn, Pres. Pure Sports Designs, LLC Pro Sign Design / United Wholesale Signs www.prosigndesign.comwww.unitedwholesalesigns.com West Liberty, OH 937-465-0595 866-942-3990 Since 1990 Posts: 925 | From: West :Liberty, OH | Registered: May 2004
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Right now,on a printing forum,a couple of people are sitting around posting hey i need a sign made,anyone have a cheap source? Sure search the internet until you find the absolute cheapest SOB on the face of the earth,dont go to a signman who actually does this for a living in town you'll pay too much....or even better,someone with absolutely no experience in signmaking will post some bastardized version of how to prep plywood(cuz its the same thing) that they think should work just fine....then everyone else will sit around wondering where cheap a*s customers and crappy work come from
-------------------- Gavin Chachere Plotter in the garage,New Orleans La.
"Sgts Shugart and Gordon again request permission to rope down to crash site two" Posts: 1223 | From: new orleans.la. | Registered: Mar 2000
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Gavin. YOU ARE MISSING THE &^%$^ Point. I don't know about these other guys, but I use these print houses to sell cards with MY DESIGNS. You darn right I want the best price available. It improves my bottom line everytime I do.
THere is a time to hammer the tire-kickin' nickel and dime it to death thing, but this ain't one of those times.
If you want to pay a higher price and go to the local guy down the street from you and then try to resell it, by all means go ahead.
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Barry if youre gonna get your testiculars twisted at opposite 90 degree angles and use language like that please take it to the dinnerware thread. Thanks in advance.
-------------------- Gavin Chachere Plotter in the garage,New Orleans La.
"Sgts Shugart and Gordon again request permission to rope down to crash site two" Posts: 1223 | From: new orleans.la. | Registered: Mar 2000
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why bother with this small profit stuff, let the printers handle it.. Hell. i dotn even print my OWN cards on my color laser.. it costs to much for me to print em, cut em, lay em out for what its worth.
Teh time spent savign 4 bux couldve been spent omn gettin a 2 grand of profit job..
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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I dunno Curtis, why don't you ask Dan Antonelli...He seems to think there is a dollar or two in being able to outsource and offer his customers turnkey service. I regularly make from 50 to 250 bucks by selling my customers business cards in addition to their signs. If you can pass that kind of extra cash up, well bully for you.
And Gavin you diverted by making lame comments about my $^$%*^ (which is only a swear word in your head.), and avoiding the point of my post. Read it again, and skip the offensive language.
[ March 04, 2005, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: Barry Branscum ]
quote:Originally posted by Rick Chavez: The topic is high quality business cards isn't it? When I think high quality, Gotprint.com, and overnightprint.com is way low end.
I'm curious why you say the cards from gotprint are low end? They've printed hundreds of sets for us and our customers love them (as do I).
-------------------- Brian Snyder Sign Effectz Woodbridge, New Jersey Posts: 723 | From: Woodbridge, NJ USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I send off for business cards almost weekly. We design our customers logos, then incorporate it to cards, letterhead, We SELL them digital art on CD for yellow page ads, etc. The printers in my area have ZERO design ability. Their cards look like the 4x8 plywood signs made by the hacker sign shops - white with red block print. I don't make a killing on business cards. But if I already have the design set up and only have to FTP to their site for an additional $50 profit, I'll do it. Plus it makes the customer feel like they need to come back because you have done it ALL for them.
Carlson craft have AWESOME cards. Do a layout in Corel or Adobe and export as an .AI file. Convert all text to curves and email to orders@ccbusinesssolutions.com Tell them you want 4 color process 'budget' cards. I think I pay $59 for 1000 cards and sell them for $109. My customer are thrilled with the final product.
-------------------- Jerry VanHorn, Pres. Pure Sports Designs, LLC Pro Sign Design / United Wholesale Signs www.prosigndesign.comwww.unitedwholesalesigns.com West Liberty, OH 937-465-0595 866-942-3990 Since 1990 Posts: 925 | From: West :Liberty, OH | Registered: May 2004
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Hey Jerry. Don't cheat yourself. We sell 3 to 4 1,000 qty 4/0 card sets at $200 every week (I pay under $45 shipped) and we actually do have some good design competition in the area. Very few balk at the price. The $200 includes an hour of design time but its an additional $75/hr after that.
[ March 04, 2005, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: Brian Snyder ]
-------------------- Brian Snyder Sign Effectz Woodbridge, New Jersey Posts: 723 | From: Woodbridge, NJ USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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-------------------- Jerry VanHorn, Pres. Pure Sports Designs, LLC Pro Sign Design / United Wholesale Signs www.prosigndesign.comwww.unitedwholesalesigns.com West Liberty, OH 937-465-0595 866-942-3990 Since 1990 Posts: 925 | From: West :Liberty, OH | Registered: May 2004
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Hey Barry.......settle yourself down. I diverted? this post got diverted at the first response......if anyone bothered to read it at all,including you,Mike asked about a desktop machine to print cards and he got 9-10 places to order them off the internet and how much people make reselling them and nothing to do with a desktop printer. As for what i said,i guess i must be on a different website when people post and get 40 replies complaining about Kinko's or the like....which coincidentally are printing shops,not sign shops,offer signs as a 'customer service'......my god the sky is falling and they're horrible SOB's who are quicky sticky-ing the very bread and butter from signmakers and should be shot,run out of town,they're no talent hacks and a joke or whatever.....you've been around here long enough to know what happens when those kinda posts hit.........yet when letterheads turn around and do the exactly same thing its a good idea and none of the above apply,so dont tell me i diverted the post when you jumped in like the whole thing was directly addressing you when it wasnt....dont take yourself so seriously you'll live longer.
-------------------- Gavin Chachere Plotter in the garage,New Orleans La.
"Sgts Shugart and Gordon again request permission to rope down to crash site two" Posts: 1223 | From: new orleans.la. | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Rick Chavez: The topic is high quality business cards isn't it? When I think high quality, Gotprint.com, and overnightprint.com is way low end.
I'm curious why you say the cards from gotprint are low end? They've printed hundreds of sets for us and our customers love them (as do I).
I don't understand, just like cheap coroplast signs, they do the job, customer is happy, but what do they know about the difference? Color uniformity is near non-existant(if that is important to you) at these internet printers. Options, just like signs or design, some printers have the one option (think vinyl only shop) or some have many to choose from. A high end printer does not have to be expensive, but they should be able to handle any paper you design too (I don't know how you design, but I design signs knowing the substrate, I design a logo system with a paper in mind, whether it is color, stock and converting ease. These web based printers do not have that option. They are one trick ponies, they have thier use, but without any paper stock options, printing options and special techniques, they are cheapo printers that make Kinkos look high end. I am not just blowing smoke, I think it's better to see examples.....
posted
I usually don't have a problem with other types of shops such as printers, until they prove they do not have a lick of design ability. You have to admit the turn over rate at that type of business is pretty high. I do not expect to recieve the same quality design from a one-hour, get your coro signs here now type of shop. It comes down to ability. It's pretty bad when the good ole boy at the local sign shop produces better cards than Kinkos. Now when Kinkos can produce a better sign than the good ole boy, the sky is falling.
-------------------- Jerry VanHorn, Pres. Pure Sports Designs, LLC Pro Sign Design / United Wholesale Signs www.prosigndesign.comwww.unitedwholesalesigns.com West Liberty, OH 937-465-0595 866-942-3990 Since 1990 Posts: 925 | From: West :Liberty, OH | Registered: May 2004
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quote:I don't understand, just like cheap coroplast signs, they do the job, customer is happy, but what do they know about the difference? Color uniformity is near non-existant(if that is important to you) at these internet printers. Options, just like signs or design, some printers have the one option (think vinyl only shop) or some have many to choose from. A high end printer does not have to be expensive, but they should be able to handle any paper you design too (I don't know how you design, but I design signs knowing the substrate, I design a logo system with a paper in mind, whether it is color, stock and converting ease.
Lets differentiate between HIGH END and HIGH QUALITY.
You said both "high quality" and "low end" in your post and my reply should have said "I'm curious why you say the cards from gotprint are low quality."
To that I say, for the type of products Printograph (gotprint) produces they offer a high quality output. They don't offer "high end" products with rare papers, custom cuts and foil stamping.
Yes, the customers are happy and they don't know the difference between paper stocks. Actually, they usually make a positive comment about how thick and glossy our cards are compared to the thermography they're used to.
To be honest, as long as they are happy and they pay their bills I'm happy. When a customer sees the cards we do and they say "wow, these are nice, I'd like these, how much?" it doesn't make any sense for me to talk them out of it.
-------------------- Brian Snyder Sign Effectz Woodbridge, New Jersey Posts: 723 | From: Woodbridge, NJ USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I think thats cool Brian, thats the difference though, isn't it? What you or your customer believe is high quality and what I and my customer believe it to be can be 2 different things? I have used a couple of companies that were highly recomended, though I have not used gotprint. They are typical bang them out companies and they have thier uses, but for color matching, shift or consistancy? I would never recomend them for a color critical job. There are plenty of sign shops using the same service with success. There are plenty of sign shops and bad printers giving this form of printing a bad reputation too. I just can't see designing to just one just one basic print option that is marginal at best in comparison to other forms of printing, but that is my experience, yours is different.
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1538 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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